KEY FACTS

Holding Organisation: Community Clinic of Patras Status: free association People involved in the project: a core working group of 20 doctors, 10 volunteers and many more supporters Public partners: NO Private Partners: ΝΟ Sources and links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/419080594789370/ Contact person: Konstandina Kouloubi kouloubi à otenet.gr

The idea:

The idea was to create a Community Clinic in Patras to provide medical assistance to people who are excluded from the public health system. These people include those who are unemployed, have no social security, migrants, low-wage earners and vulnerable pensioners.

The local context:

In May 2010, Greece joined the IMF, leading to the signing of a series of memoranda with heavy financial implications for the population, thus a large portion of Greeks were forced into poverty and exclusion from access to the public health system. A high percentage of them has lost health insurance or cannot afford to pay for it. Moreover, there are 1.500.000 unemployed people in Greece with no health security and an unknown number of people working on the black market.

The starting point:

Witnessing the great number of people without access to the public health system, a group of volunteer doctors, with the support of the Medical Association, the Union of Hospital Doctors and the University School of Medicine, proceeded to create the Community Clinic in the city of Patras.

How does it work?

The Municipality has provided a space to house the Clinic. The clinic operates 3 times a week and offers medical assistance to uninsured and poor people excluded from the public health system. It operates in cooperation with the city's hospitals, and a large number of private practitioners examine patients in need in their private clinics. The Community Clinic is also cooperating with the Community Pharmacy, which is next door but is run by the Municipality and therefore, has more strict criteria about who can have access to medication. The Community Clinic does not accept donations directly, but people who want to support its activities can donate medicines and supplies to the Community Pharmacy or to the Medical Association of Patras. __

Added value of the project and making resources available:

Economical benefits: uninsured, unemployed and poor patients receive primary healthcare services and medication. Social benefits: it supports and empowers patients in a difficult economic situation, integrating them into society and offering a feeling of “belonging”. Shaping policies: It is not trying to substitute the State, but it is trying to empower the people and help them to resist and recognise that the right to health is fundamental and should be offered by the State to all citizens equally.

Challenges/risks/inertias:

There is the difficulty to cover surgeries for people in need, an issue which has not yet been solved despite the efforts of the Clinic. Moreover, there is a shortage of obstetricians and pediatricians to meet the needs of the patients on an ongoing basis.

Future perspectives:

The first goal is to find solutions for the already existing problems of the Community Clinic, such as the lack of particular specialties. The second one is to empower people who are the beneficiaries of the Community Clinic and to push them to claim the right to health for all people.